 An honorary degree in Arts was bestowed upon Dave Matthews at Pennsylvania's Harverford College on Sunday, May 15th.
Harverford is a small 1,100 liberal arts college founded by the Religious Society of Friends, (Quakers) though it is no longer considered a religious institution.
Dave was raised under the Quaker religion as a child in South Africa. In the DMB biography Step Into the Light Morgan DeLancey suggests Dave's Quaker roots as part of his reasoning behind leaving the country. "His avoidance of military service is consistent with Quaker philosophy, which is fundamentally pacifist." Following his immigration to the United States in 1986, Dave moved to Charlottesville, VA, where he enjoyed his last flirtation with higher education at a local community college.
Celebrity honorary degrees are not uncommon in the United States and abroad, Bob Dylan received doctorates from Princeton University (1997) and University of St. Andrews in Scotland. (2004) Both Billy Joel and Steve Tyler received their honorary doctorate from Berklee School of Music in 1993 and 2003 respectively. Last year U2 front man Bono received a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Cosmopolitan University has compiled a long list of honorary degree recipients that includes Mike Tyson.
According to an article on honorary degrees from the BBC News, "occasionally it is tempting to suspect that the real reason for an award is the amount of publicity it creates for the university." In some sense it is easy to believe that this particular match up may not have been so contrived. During his acceptance speech he said that he himself is a "non-believer," and ended his speech by saying, "Go save the world by being yourself." This fits in part with the teachings of Quakerism which "...
remains rooted in the Christian faith and the centrality of
Jesus is paramount, although His sovereignty is not unanimously
upheld." (Quaker.org)
Dave does not draw frequent attention to his faith in the Quaker religion. In October 2003, he was asked by a reader of Blender Magazine: "You were Raised a Quaker. What tenets did you learn that you'd like to pass on to your daughters?" Dave answered that "...peace is the most important thing. And in that, I think love is included. Above all things, it’s the most righteous. Not war for peace, not guns or bombs for peace. Peace itself, a natural state."
Three pictures of Dave at the ceremony are floating around. We enhanced them for you here:
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